Photo Credit Justice For Tamir Rice FB Page My seven-year-old son said to me a few months back, “I don’t want to get shot and killed when I get big.” This was out of the blue, as his thoughts tend to be. I quickly assured him that he shouldn’t even worry about that. That wasn’t going to happen to him. I purposefully dismissed the thought much quicker than I would have if he wasn’t seven. A time when the thrill of his next basketball game, or lure of his next adventure with a friend should be occupying his mind. He’s a deep kid though. And what came out of his mouth next left tears in my eyes. “But what if I’m walking down the street and a police tells me to move and I’m just trying to get on the grass and he thinks I’m trying to run away and he shoots me?” And so now I’m speechless. Because “what if” . . . A Bad Mom Moment? We live in St. Louis. A ten minute drive from Ferguson in fact. When Michael Brown was murdered, I didn’t talk with my children about it for the first few days. The older ones are 7, 8 and 11, and I didn’t want to take the piece of innocence away from them that would inevitably be stolen when they learned this happened, and why. I thought about how freely my boys (the 7 and 8-year-olds) approach police officers and ask them about all the devices they wear around their belts. I didn’t want them to fear the police. Most are good.... read more